Media and digital literacies in Canadian teacher educators’ open educational practices: A post-intentional phenomenology

Pragmatism

Although not a primary focus of this research, the theoretical and ontological approaches found within pragmatism held some sway over my worldview and thus need to be explicated within this research dissertation. First, as a pragmatist I understood that past patterns of action may not suit future problems, which suited the uncertainty and rapid change that occured within MDL and OEPr spaces (Belshaw, 2011). Second, the allowance for error and chance made pragmatism a practical philosophy and removed the need for perfection and the all-knowing-eye of the researcher (Belshaw, 2011). Third, pragmatism rejected the notion of an objective stance through which truth or belief are established, as “reasoning is allied to experience rather than replacing it” (Belshaw, 2011, p. 131). Fourth, pragmatists understood that experiences were more than the sum of the compilation of all the parts. In this way, pragmatic projects were not bound by explicit frameworks, but are considered reflections in action as a way to ‘unthink’ the experiences (Belshaw, 2011). For these reasons, the shadows of pragmatism are evident in the practical applications and decisions I made within this research work.
 

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